March 04, 2007	Sunday	Safar 14, 1428

KARACHI, March 3: Thriftiness has emerged as a fast growing habit among the majority of the white-collar and middle class people when it comes to make monthly purchases for running a household within means to avoid borrowings or eating into savings.

This is considered to be the only way to swim through the high-tide waves of price escalation, which economic managers say is the result of economic development and high growth rate. Many are not convinced with their views.

After finding government reluctance to play its role for stabilising or maintaining prices and checking profiteering, traders – both wholesaler and retailers – and hoarders of essential items are fleecing middle-class consumers whose real income fails to keep pace with the price-escalation.

Now, the salaried class, with a income bracket of Rs5,500 to Rs15,000, is finding it attractive to buy grocery and general items from wholesale markets just to save bucks for costly milk, meat, oils, etc.

Many people from white-collar class observe that during the last four to five years dearness has curtailed buying capacity of the daily-wagers, low-cadre contractual workers and government employees.

“I don’t feel a visible change in our family’s living standards during the last five years and our financial condition does not show any marked improvement. My two younger brothers have stopped education and started working,” says a hair-dresser Imran, bread-earner of a nine-member family.

He said since many wholesale outlets have now emerged in his area, he procures his monthly grocery and general items from there which helps save a few hundred rupees, making the pinch of sky-high prices a bit less severe.

A grade-14 employee said after feeling the pinch of rising inflation, he was now making monthly purchases from wholesale stores, which was not only cheaper, but also offering attractive deals.

He said earlier wholesalers were not inclined to sell to general buyers owing to meagre quantities, but now this trend has changed as many wholesalers in main wholesale markets have opened their own stores in nearby markets of residential areas.

“This has further fattened up the earnings of wholesalers as they have been attracting rush owing to rates which are at par with Jodia bazaar or slightly above it,” observed a retailer in North Nazimabad.

Recently, many a foreign retail and wholesale chains have entered joint ventures with local partners and opened up outlets in big cities with plans to expand their operations.

The Netherlands’ Makro is such an example, which with a local partner, a few months back had opened an outlet in Karachi and recently another one in Lahore, attracting huge crowds of buyers.

“Makro is a high volume, low-cost, low price, no frills cash and carry wholesaler, selling to registered professional customers a full range of food and non-food products,” informed a development executive at the outlet.

He said the response was marvellous though our core customer base was retailer, caterer and professional in the service sector, but a large number of general buyers had been visiting the outlet.

Many other superstores, like EBCO, Imtiaz, Nauheed etc., are attracting huge crowds, but a majority of the visitors to these stores belong to upper-middle and upper class.